a/n: totally didn't just get back into star trek...
also totally didn't start getting into franz ferdinand
btw, their song take me out inspired this one shot--enjoy!
You tend to be a bit of a reserved person in general. The combination of a good amount of social anxiety and being an introvert make you just a bit awkward, but you deal.
Playing guitar, though. Something about your old purple Strat covered in worn stickers and fading doodles from your bandmates makes you into the outgoing rocker you had always dreamed of being. You and your friends decided to make a little garage band when you were all 14-15. Thinking it would just fall apart after a few months, you all enjoyed just playing songs you liked.
Plot twist, you're all 18-19 now, getting close to graduating the Academy, all working on the Enterprise, and still together.
There's a little club on the Enterprise called the Jackrabbit that became the place to be for all the alternative folks, and you and your band play there all the time.
...
"Come on, Wesley. It's just one concert, and if you hate it, you can leave," Wesley's friend Mordok begs.
"I work tomorrow, man. It'll throw me off," Wesley huffs.
"Fine, be boring," Mordok smirks and shrugs.
Wesley stops for a moment before sighing and saying, "Alright, alright. I'll go. What time?"
"Meet me at the Jackrabbit at 2200 hours," Mordock grins.
"You are taking me to a concert at the Jackrabbit?" Wesley raises an eyebrow. "That's not my scene, man."
Unbeknownst to him, your band's drummer was standing nearby and overheard that. She stifles a laugh and quickly sends you a PADD message: That boy you like is going to our concert tonight. You better look good as hell.
"I mean, yeah," Mordok nods. "It'll be fun, just loosen up, Wes."
"Mkay," Wesley hums. "I'll meet you there."
He rushes back to the Bridge, sitting down at the navigation desk next to yours.
"What was that about?" you chuckle at how out of breath he is.
"Apparently it was an emergency in engineering to tell me I'm going to a concert tonight," he replies.
You chuckle, having checked the message from your drummer. "Whoa, man. Doesn't he know you work tomorrow?"
"That's what I said! But, you know Mordok."
"Who are you gonna see?" you raise an eyebrow.
"Hah, I don't even know," Wesley chuckles.
Damn, you really don't, you think. I better not fuck up tonight.
"That's exciting," you smile.
"I guess. I'm a bit nervous. I've never been to the Jackrabbit before."
"Who bribed you to go there, Wes?" Riker joins in the conversation. "Uh, sorry to eavesdrop."
"Mordok, and he just bought an extra ticket. The person he was gonna go with canceled on him," Wesley explains.
"Ah," Riker nods.
...
Your shift ends before Wesley's, so that gives you enough time to get ready for sound check and everything. The staff are happy to see you and your band again, and help everyone set up the stage.
"I'm nervous," you admit to the drummer as you drag your eyeliner over your eye.
"He was gonna figure out you're in a band sometime, better late than never," the drummer shrugs. "It'll be okay. You'll do great, and you're hot, and he'll fall in love with you."
You scoff. "Alright, then. If you say so."
...
Wesley meets Mordok outside the Jackrabbit, and they enter the place together. It's filled with the usual suspects: punks, goths, vintagerians, and indie art hoes. Suddenly, Wesley feels a bit underdressed.
The two make their way to the area around the stage (Mordok, who thinks he has a chance with the bass player, demanded to be in the front rows), pushing past people as the sound check stops. The drummer is already behind her kit, slowly tapping out a beat while motioning to the staff at the side of the stage. Eventually, the rest of the band comes out.
Wesley's never seen anything like this. It's so archaic, isn't it? The band uses ancient wires hooked up to amps with screens that have been patched and sewn up at least 10 times in their lives. Every piece of equipment is covered in stickers, some so old that they've got no color and the edges are pulling up; there's worn paint on the drum kit, and one of the cymbals is cracked. It's got a charm to it, though. Wesley just can't figure out what draws him in so much.
Each member looks vaguely familiar. Wesley's sure he's seen all of them around the Enterprise, especially one of the guitarists. Maybe he'll recognize them more when they start singing...
It's been a song or two (Wesley kind of couldn't tell when the first one ended and the second one began...if there even was a second), and finally the guitarist speaks:
"What's up? It's been a while!"
The crowd shouts in response.
"I know, I know, we've missed you too," they keep going. "It's kind of my bad. I broke my hand pretty bad about two months ago and I was pretty out of commission with my cast and everything."
"Y/n?" Wesley mutters to himself, remembering you coming into work with a cast on your right hand.
"Oh yeah, and also dumbass extraordinaire back here on the drums had a pretty major knee thing, so it's not entirely my fault," the guitarist adds. "Anyway, this one's called Purity--and it's not the Slipknot song."
The audience again loses its mind as you play the opening riff, the rest of the band joining in soon after. You and your bandmates seem to have the best time as you play each song, rarely keeping in perfect time or being totally in sync.
After a ton of the band's original songs, the other guitarist next to you announces the next bit of the concert.
"We're gonna play some songs we didn't write now," they smile. "Y/n tried to get us to play Green Day, but we saved y'all from that."
"Hey, fuck yourself," you playfully smack your friend. "Green Day fans deserve to get what they want, too."
"Jesus christ, shut up. No one cares about Green Day anymore."
"You're wrong," you scoff. "This one's called Take Me Out."
...
So far, you'd managed to keep your composure. You saw Wesley as he and Mordok were coming to their places close to the stage, and you've been anxious about doing this song since you walked into the Jackrabbit three hours ago.
Your bassist shoots a grin and a wink at you as you start the song, soon starting to sing.
"So if you're lonely"-you quickly glance down at Wesley-"you know I'm here, waiting for you."
Throughout the intro, you play with quickly looking over at Wesley before looking back out into the audience. Once the tempo changes, you keep your eyes on Wesley for the whole "take me out" line.
"I move, this could die," you sing, making and holding direct eye contact with Wesley for the first time. "Eyes move-" you flick your glance away for a moment before looking back at him again- "this could die. I want you, to take me out!"
Suddenly, you begin to get a bit more confident. It gets more fun to think you're a hot person teasing your crush from a stage, so you interchange the moments where you're looking at Wesley with dancing around the stage with your bandmates. Might as well have fun while you make an attempt to flirt.
As the end of the song nears, you lower down to one knee in front of Wesley during the "come ooooooooonnn..." line, then smirk and sing "take me out!" before abruptly pushing yourself back up and finishing out the song, going back to sending occasional glances and smirks down at him.
For the rest of the show, you're not sure he ever takes his eyes off you. It makes you a little nervous, but you feel almost proud of yourself that you were able to captivate him at all.
The show ends, and you wave goodbye to the crowd as you walk off the stage, then promptly have a silent panic attack in the green room.
What if you fucked up? What if you've fucked even your friendship with Wesley up? Have you killed any chance at anything?
The other guitarist, your best friend, silently holds you and supports you through it while telling you Wesley totally got a hard on because who wouldn't get a hard on looking at you?
"Thank you," you force out when you regain your breath.
"You did great tonight, hun. It's gonna be okay. Worst case, you'll ask Riker to rework your schedule so you don't have to see Wesley."
"I think there are far worse cases, but I appreciate the help," you dryly chuckle.
"Come on, do you honestly think Wesley Crusher is rude enough to be an asshole to you if you ask him out? I'm pretty sure he's excited he's getting attention period."
"You make a fair point," you shrug.
"The rest of us are gonna have a few drinks after we change. Are you up for that?"
You hesitate. "I don't think so. I think I'll just slip out," you reply. "You guys have fun, though. Be safe."
"You too," your friend gives you a hug. "Take care of yourself tonight."
You're left alone in your dressing room to pull a hoodie on, grab your guitar case, then stalk out of the Jackrabbit through an employee exit. From there, you haul ass back to your quarters. No one's in the hall to see you (thank god) as you stumble into your room and collapse onto your bed.
...
"Y/n is in a band, did you know that, sir?" Wesley asks Riker as they walk down the hall together.
Riker chuckles. "I did. On show days, I make their shifts end earlier so they have enough time for sound check."
"What? Why didn't I know?"
"I guess they never told you," the commander shrugs.
"Come to think of it, I did barely see them after work hours. But anyway, it was like they sang this whole song to me!"
Riker raises his eyebrows. "Knowing the kind of music they write, I'm afraid to ask which song it was."
"No no, it wasn't one of their original songs. It was literally called 'Take Me Out'."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, and whenever they'd go 'take me out', they'd look at me and smirk a little bit. And there was also this one part where they leaned down in front of me and went 'come ooonn, take me out!'" Wesley adds, a little blush scratching at his cheeks as he recalls the butterflies he got from that.
"Well that's subtle," Riker smirks.
"Weird you say that, sir. I kind of don't know what to do."
"Take them out, probably."
"It can't be that easy."
"Sometimes it is," Riker shrugs. "Trust me."
"I'm still skeptical."
Riker pauses for a moment. "Do you want to go out with Y/n?"
Wesley blushes a bit. "I mean, I do. I kind of have for a while."
"...and it seems like they want to go out with you, too."
The ensign stays silent.
"I'm just gonna say, I think you should go for it," Riker tells his companion. "There's no harm in trying."
"I'll keep that in mind," Wesley hums. He splits with Riker to go down the hall to his quarters.
While he replays his conversation with Riker, he sees a certain someone in the hall, resting a guitar case next to a door close to his.
You look over and shoot him a small smile. "Hey, there."
"Ah, hey," Wesley walks over to you. "I didn't know you were so close to my quarters."
"Heh, this isn't my room. I was replacing the strings for my friend, and I'm just giving it back."
"Oh, alright," the ensign nods, not knowing what else to say. "Hey, listen..."
"Hm?" you look up from the guitar case, letting go of it as it finally leans correctly against the wall.
"I don't know if I'm reading things wrong here, but...did you really want me to take you out?"
You smile, wondering for a second about how honest you should be. "I did."
Wesley blushes at the direct answer. "Oh. Well, then, would you want to go out sometime? With me?"
There's a half a second where you're both processing what Wesley said until you reply, "Of course! I'd love to."
"Really?" Wesley smiles as his eyes light up.
"Mh-hm."
"Alright, uh, meet me at holodeck 4...tonight?"
"Sure," you smile. "I'll wear something nice."
Wesley can only smile before he ducks into his quarters and falls onto his couch, his blush slowly covering his face.
...
2074 words of this
didn't proofread tbh, kinda think it's cringe. sorry yall, just wanted to write this out